A whirlwind tour of Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest

Bratislava- somewhat quieter than Vienna

The Austrian Parliament Building, decorated with enormous Roman/Greek gods

The streets of Vienna

The central cathedral in Vienna had an amazing roof made from coloured tiles

Leaving Prague, I headed South through the abundant Czech pine forests towards Slovakia. But the border was tantalisingly close to Vienna, so I decided on a quick detour and hopped over the Austrian border first to take a quick peep at one of the most famous European cities.

Once in Austria, the land grew mountainous and you can easily imagine Maria skipping through the hills to freedom. From Vienna, the capital, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of a mountain or two if you’re looking down the right street. I love cities tucked in the mountains since my time in La Paz. But Vienna is completely the opposite of La Paz, a fabulously grandiose city which must be home to some of the largest and most extravagant buildings and palaces in Europe. Many were built by the Hapsburgs, a royal family who ruled over much of Europe for centuries and their incredible wealth and lifestyle is evident in the legacy that they left the city. Art galleries, science museums, palaces, enormous fountains, libraries, cathedrals, parliament, theatres and opera houses; Vienna has many of all of these and each on a massive scale, making this one of the most exciting cities for culture in the past and present. While the city is a celebration of human achievement and enlightenment, there is a hidden paradox in that the vast amounts of wealth that it must have taken to build and maintain surely come from a period of boom that made Europe the centre of the world but which plundered other continents and put them in the “less developed” position many countries are in today. The science museum epitomises their view of the world at the time with two huge statues, one of Europe, a human beacon of liberty and learning, while Australia and the Americas is but a savage under conquest. On the brighter side, I had the best hog dot- sorry, Bratwurst- ever there; the sausage somehow had a melted cheese centre and it was slotted inside a baguette cut open at the end rather than the middle...Mmmm!

After spending just a day wandering through Vienna, I pushed on over the border to Slovakia and came to Bratislava, the slovakian capital, arriving on the Easter Saturday. It was a sleepy little city, presumably partly because of the Easter weekend, but I doubt that it is exactly a hubbub of activity usually. The historic centre, apparently the only part worth exploring could be walked through completely in just about fifteen minutes. But it was quite a sweet little place, and even though many of the buildings were in the same Eastern European style as the rest of the region, they seemed very run-down and rather small after Vienna’s grandeur.

There was little to do in Bratislava, so the next day it was time to head off and I ended up in Budapest after quite a journey. Coming into the city, I saw a beautiful neo-gothic palace with red domed rooftops all lit up by the side of the river and I later discovered that this was the Hungarian Parliament. It was night time, but I went for a walk with a number of Aussies and an American that I met in a friendly little hostel in the city. We got some Chinese food and had a beer, wandering along the glittering river that seems to be a prerequisite for all these cities to be built upon. Budapest is a huge and beautiful city, although it is probably not the safest place. We stopped for a while at a poignant war memorial where shoes line the river bank for a long stretch, remembering the spot where hundreds of Jews were shot in the second world war and fell into the water leaving only their shoes on the bank.

Unfortunately the next day was grey and miserable and I got soaked in the torrential rain which destroyed my shoes and made a more extensive exploration of Budapest impossible. But it was Monday already and I was getting further and further away from Dresden, now on the wrong side of Europe in comparison to where I should have been! It was time to turn around and catch the night train back to the real world, so that evening I headed back across Hungary, Slovakia, Czech and into Germany on a cosy little bunk bed tucked into a cabin on an amazing high speed overnight train that cost me less than it would to get from Plymouth to Leicester even with a railcard. I love European transport!